Chicago Avenue YMCA slated for redevelopment

by Joe Zekas on 5/15/14

Real estate developers have been sniffing around the Lawson House YMCA, 30 W Chicago Ave, for quite some time, scheming schemes to convert it to residential use.

Crain’s Chicago Real Estate Daily reported several days ago that the Y will be redeveloped as 450 units of affordable housing in a renovation that “could cost up to $100 million and may not start for another two years…”

The switchover would shutter the largest single-room occupancy facility in the Midwest, removing 583 units from the ever-dwindling SRO supply on Chicago’s north side. Rooms at the Y currently rent for as little as $410 a month.